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  • Taxable sales

    Find out when your business sales are taxable and you include GST in the price.

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    About taxable sales

    If you are registered for GST, or required to be, the goods and services you sell in Australia are taxable, unless they are GST-free or input-taxed.

    To be a taxable sale with GST in the price, a sale must be:

    Paying GST on taxable sales

    You pay GST on the taxable sales you make when you lodge your activity statement. For these taxable sales, you:

    • include GST in the price
    • issue a tax invoice to the buyer
    • pay the GST you've collected when you lodge your activity statement.

    You can claim credits for the GST included in the price of purchases you needed to make your taxable sales.

    Use the GST calculatorExternal Link on ASIC's MoneySmart website to calculate the amount of GST to include in a taxable sale.

    For terms related to GST, check GST definitions.

    Partly taxable sales

    If your sale can be separated into identifiable parts and any of those parts are GST-free or input-taxed, the sale is partly taxable. You only need to pay GST on the taxable part of the sale.

    For more information, see:

    Capital assets

    Sales of business assets such as office equipment and motor vehicles are usually taxable sales. You will need to include GST when you trade in or dispose of business assets by transferring ownership.

    For more information, see: GST and the disposal of capital assets.

    Sales for payment

    For a sale to be taxable, it must be made for payment which can be monetary or another form of payment, such as:

    • goods or services provided instead of money, such as barter transactions
    • payment in the form of refraining from doing something.

    Example: non-monetary payments

    Marnie is a makeup artist registered for GST. She posts videos to social media platform on how to apply makeup and receives thousands of views.

    Louise's Lipsticks Pty Ltd, an Australian business, engages Marnie to promote their products in her social media videos. Under the agreement, Marnie receives $22,000 worth of products from Louise's Lipsticks Pty Ltd as payment for promoting their products in her videos.

    Marnie’s taxable sale to Louise’s Lipsticks Pty Ltd has a value of $22,000. She provides a tax invoice to Louise’s Lipsticks Pty Ltd for her promotional services at a cost of $20,000 plus $2,000 GST.

    Marnie must also include $2,000 GST from this taxable sale in her BAS.

    End of example

    For more information, see:

    Sales in the course of operating your business

    For a sale to be taxable, you must provide the goods or services as part of conducting your business. This includes all sales of business assets, including items such as motor vehicles and office plant and equipment. It also includes things done in the course of setting up or winding down your business.

    Sales connected with Australia

    GST applies to sales connected with Australia, whether they are:

    Goods

    A sale of goods is connected with Australia if the goods are either:

    • delivered or made available in Australia to the purchaser
    • removed from Australia
    • brought to Australia – provided the seller either imports the goods or installs or assembles the goods in Australia.
    • from 1 July 2018, supplies of low value imported goods to a consumer in Australia.

    Exports of goods and services from Australia are generally GST-free, even though the sale is connected with Australia.

    For more information, see:

    Property

    A sale of property is connected with Australia if the property is in Australia.

    For GST purposes, property includes:

    • land
    • land and buildings
    • interest in land
    • rights over land
    • a licence to occupy land.

    For more information, see GSTR 2018/1 Goods and services tax: supplies of real property connected with the indirect tax zone (Australia).

    Things other than goods or property

    A sale of something other than goods or property is connected with Australia if either the:

    • thing is done in Australia
    • seller makes the sale through a business they carry on in Australia
    • sale is of a right or option to purchase something that would be connected with Australia.
    • purchaser of the sale is an Australian consumer.

    For more information, see:

    Last modified: 18 May 2023QC 22418